LJ g soccer: Sammie

Vikes' Sammie Smigliani is number 23.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

Sammie Smigliani, junior sweeper, on La Jolla's soccer team, defending CIF Division 1 champions, playing well this season:

I think that we have a lot of players who have stepped it up. Especially our forwards, (juniors) Chloe (Alexander) and Charli (Davy), took it to another level this year. And all of our seniors really stepped into a leadership role because we lost two or three good players who graduated. But I feel everyone came together and took it upon themselves. It has been cool to watch.

EP: What's your role? Talk about that.

SS: I'd say mainly making sure that everyone's organized, then, obviously, if things break down, getting it back and settling it down and getting up the field.

EP: You got the 2-1 decision (home loss to Cathedral) tonight (Thurs., Feb. 1). Then you have a couple of days. What do you do with that mentally?

SS: I think we need to just take the weekend to get past this, and then come Tuesday, we just want to take all of our anger out on them. We play Point Loma and Patrick Henry (actually, Point Loma and Bishop's).

Right now we're tied with Scripps. Hopefully, Cathedral beats Scripps and then we push ahead.

EP: Who is someone who has developed this year and come out of nowhere to be a surprise?

SS: Definitely, Sara Evans. She's a sophomore. She wasn't actually on varsity last year, but she plays the whole game and she has really impressed me this year. She's a center-mid(fielder).